Willawaw Journal

Online Poetry & Art

Willawaw Journal

Ingrid Wendt

The Photographer: Self Portrait

Between us, this box through which I look
At you and you cannot

See the sorrow I bring from years of capturing
Moments that never will come again.

When we die, I’ve been told, we really
Die twice: when we settle into breath’s absence

And when no one on this earth
Knows who we are in photos left behind.

Yet how can I stop myself? The glory of
This moment, your very soul in your eyes.

Eugene, Oregon, poet Ingrid Wendt is the author of five books of poems and co-editor of two anthologies. A musician by avocation, she was a visiting writer in public schools and universities throughout the US and abroad for 30 years. Recent poems appear in Poetry, American Poetry Review, Terrain, Calyx, About Place, and others. IngridWendt.com

 

Back Page with Helen Geglio

Helen Geglio is an artist and
art educator living in South
Bend, Indiana.  Originally
from Michigan, she received
her BFA in studio art from
the University of Michigan
and also holds an MS in education from
Indiana University. In her work as an artist, she creates hand stitched fiber artworks and has been represented in local, regional and national exhibits. Her work has been selected for Quilt National, Art Quilt Elements, Fantastic Fibers, Quilts=Art=Quilts, Artist as Quiltmaker, and Visions: Interpretations. Helen regularly exhibits with SAQA Global Exhibitions and the Surface Design Association and she is a long-time member of Woman Made Gallery and the Women’s Caucus for Art. For more information: www.helengeglio.com.

 

Wisdom Cloak: Finder and Keeper, detail (2020)–Wool, cotton, small objects. Photo by Kay Westhues. Private Collection.

Artist Statement:
The lives of women, and how we are connected to textiles, is what interests me as an artist. I collect worn clothing, domestic linens and sewing scraps, and then I construct meaning from these pieces of cloth. I enjoy the process of working with materials that have passed through other hands, and I look for a story, maybe a snapshot of a moment, to open a visual narrative. The idea of women’s work is a recurring theme in my art, so I use hand stitching and embroidery to hold the pieces together, to bind the layers and gather the textile detritus of the everyday into a new whole. The work I do, and the way of working that I value, is slow and mindful. In the end, I want to create an insightful visual image, one that invites viewers to look closely and make connections to their own stories.

About Poet Laureate Erica Goss

Erica Goss served as Poet Laureate of Los Gatos,
California from 2013-2016. She is the author
of Landscape with Womb and Paradox
(Broadstone Books, 2025). Her first poetry
collection, Night Court, won the 2016
Lyrebird Prize from Glass Lyre Press. She
is the author of Wild Place (2012,Finishing
Line Press) and Vibrant Words: Ideas and
Inspirations for Poets (2014, Pushpen Press).

As Poet Laureate for Los Gatos, she organized
the first St. Patrick’s Day Poetry Walk, created
Poems-in-the-Window (local businesses
displayed poems during National Poetry Month), recorded The Poetry Podcast
(50-plus recordings of poems in a variety of languages), established the first Los Gatos
Poet Laureate Scholarship, and launched The Poetry Kitchen, a poetry reading series
at the Los Gatos Library.

Erica’s work is featured in numerous anthologies and journals, including Colorado
Review, Georgia Review, North Dakota Review, Oregon Humanities, Pearl, The
Pedestal, diode, PRISM International, Superstition Review, The Summerset Review,
Ekphrasis, Main Street Rag, Café Review, Perigee, Redactions, Dash Literary Journal,
Eclectica, Up the Staircase, Lake Effect,Consequence, Stirrings, Convergence,
Passager, Atticus Review, Gravel, Tinderbox Review, Caveat Lector, Rattle, Zoland
Poetry, Spillway, San Pedro Rover Review, Comstock Review, Contrary, and
Innisfree Poetry Journal.

In 2023, she received a “Notable Essay” honor from Best American Essays. She
received the Zocalo Poetry Prize in 2019 and the Many Mountains Moving Prize for
poetry in 2011. She was nominated for the Pushcart Prize in 2010, 2013, 2017, 2020,
2021, and 2024, Best of the Net in 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2023, and received the first
Edwin Markham Prize for poetry, judged by California Poet Laureate Al Young. Wild
Place was also a finalist in the 2010 White Eagle Coffee Store Press Chapbook Contest,
and received a special mention from Jacar Press’s 2010 Chapbook Contest. Erica was
the host of Word to Word, a Show About Poetry, on KCAT Cable TV in Los Gatos,
and wrote The Third Form, a column about video poetry, for Connotation Press. She
is the co-founder of Media Poetry Studio, a poetry-and-film camp for teen girls. In
2018, Erica founded Girls’ Voices Matter, an arts education program for teen girls.
Erica lives in Eugene, Oregon, and teaches classes in poetry, memoir and video.

Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City 1885

–a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner

A shadow stretches
from dune to dune,
cool valley where
tufts of grass
lean towards the ocean.

Out to sea, sails flutter like
the wings of a cabbage moth
I saw this morning in my garden,
searching for a place to lay
a last clutch of eggs
before winter closes in.

So often I have felt
like those shrubs on the beach,
bent sideways from
some elemental force,
its life-changing weight
pressing me into a new shape,

as if my heart were an object
to be molded by wind.
I offer myself as raw material,
a last chance at transformation
before the pale half-disc of sun sets
and that cloud spreads
across the sky.

First published in Two Hawks Quarterly, Spring 2024

 

Notes from the Editor

Dear Readers,

I was almost waylaid by a corgi at the market this morning, nearly tripped over her amongst the crowd and vegetables, careened and regained my balance. Whew! Her name was Duchess and I bowed to her as she and her human sallied forth. Caused me to reflect for a moment on the pleasures of standing upright.

We don’t know what might undo us, at the market or in the poem, as the writer or as the reader. And that keeps me turning the pages of each issue of Willawaw. Half-way into my eighth year of this production, and it is still full of surprises and also some growing pains.

This issue, I had to veer from the poet laureate prompt. I may have to widen the geography to include more of the country so that I can continue to find poet laureate candidates. I may need to raise the submission fees to cover the increasing costs of running a website and using a submission manager. Maybe I’ll try another ad in Poets & Writers?

Meanwhile, contributors persist in sending work that I can’t resist, new poets and those I see often, some emerging and some extremely accomplished. An ongoing revelation for which I am grateful.

In this issue, you will find ghazals which are a special interest of mine this year. (And I may as well tell you that I am currently exploring ekphrastic poetry— it may also show up as a prompt!)

I don’t know which poem might sweep you off your feet, but I would like to know. Please send me a note (willawawjournal@gmail.com) with your feedback. You, as the reader, are an integral part of this creative endeavor. I value your insights.

If you have sailed through this last week of Full Moon / Super Moon and Eclipse, then carry on. If, like me, you felt a bit of a wobble, take courage. My sister tells me there’s lots of new energy coming into the planet and it may take a moment or three to re-calibrate.

Happy Fall Equinox—

Rachel Barton

Rose Mary Boehm

The Mood Turns

The swifts have weaned their young
and those the cat didn’t get
are gunning for Africa.
Perhaps they get caught
in the nets of our Italian songbird
lovers. They like them grilled.

Smoke columns rise at various
points across the flats and hills.
The farmers are burning off the old chaff
and sometimes a few hectares of
precious woodland.

Yesterday a tornado ripped
across the open land and took
umbrage at our apple tree:
split off half of it in a rage hardly
ever seen that far East
of Tornado Alley.

A month ago, summer still
stretched languidly by the side
of the pool, and I would compete
with my friendly wasps for
a breakfast of figs among
big-handed leaves.

As they tumble and stumble
even the rose petals whisper
to no-one in particular: beware
of the lion of winter. Stick out
your tongue. Taste that first edge
of the crystal knife announcing its
return. Make sure your barn
is full of firewood.

Rose Mary Boehm is a German-born British national living and writing in Lima, Peru, and author of two novels as well as eight poetry collections. Her poetry has been published widely in mostly US poetry reviews (online and print). She is a ‘Pushcart’ and ‘Best of Net’ nominee. Her eighth book, LIFE STUFF, has been published by Kelsay Books (November 2023). View her website here.